Ancient Chinese Tomb Yields Oldest Leather Saddle on Record

Archaeologists have discovered a 2,700-year-old leather horse saddle in the tomb of a woman in northwestern China, which may be the oldest ever found. The saddle, made between 724 and 396 B.C., was discovered in the Turpan Basin of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and may predate saddles known from the Scythians. The earliest Sythian saddles seem to date from between the fifth and the third centuries B.C. and have been found in the Altai Mountains region of Russian Siberia and in eastern Kazakhstan. The saddle's position suggests that women participated in the day-to-day activities of mounted pastoralists, which included herding and travelling.